Porsche to include 7 speed manual option in new 911
 

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13746_7...CmoreStories.0


Question: how would you fit 7 speeds on a traditional H pattern stick shift? or is it a sequential?

I approve of this message (even though I've known about this for a couple months now).


Oh, come on now... hahaha. It would be like my old 5-speed with reverse being below 5th gear. Except for two more gears in the middle.

I can see a lot of miss shifts happening.

would it really be that simple? i drove an s2000 for 2 years so i know what it's like to have a 6 speed H pattern with a reverse way out to the side, but adding still another gear to that would be hectic!

Like this

http://www.inautonews.com/wp-content...s08gso.th.jpeg

r 2 4 6

1 3 5 7

this makes more sense.
1st is for parking, 2nd - 7th gear is the driving range

That was my first thoughts, but maybe they think 3rd and 4th most used?

I really don't see how that would be confusing at all. It's a cruising gear. Use it when cruising. All other times it's a standard 6 speed gate pattern. Pretty cool, though.

Next thing you know there will be a 8spd gearbox and all this non-sense.

i'm not saying it's confusing. i'm saying when you're at the track, especially when you're gonna be downshifting and upshifting between the middle gears a lot, it's gonna be real easy to misshift with all those gears in the middle. btw the already have 8 speed automatics.

So is it a triple overdrive or just dual with 5th being one to one and 1-4 being extremely close ratio?

Apparently it isn't (I probably should have checked first)!

Just seems weird to have 2 dog legs (albeit one being reverse). I'm not a fan of the reverse in the top left next to 1st. I will admit that I've put my car in reverse a couple times trying to get it into 1st quickly, yet I never hit reverse on the highway with the 5...

Most of them have the ring or you have to push down on the stick to get it in reverse. It's partcially fool proof but I could imagine a few failed attempts durng a quick 3 pts for example. I'm sure after week, it'll be like second nature regardless of it's 4 spd, 5 spd, 6 spd, 7spd and even 5 spd with the ol skool 4wd mini shifter! Man I miss those! :party0030:

Hmmmm, that would defiantly help. The 6 speed on the XRS only has a bushing that makes it feel different and slightly inhibits going into reverse. I've only managed to hit reverse instead of 1st twice (both from a neutral stick).

And I agree the 7 speed won't be that hard to get used to. Just have to watch the downshift from 7-6 speed dependant, wouldn't really want a 7-4 at a decent click.

:word: Don't see what the issue is. 7th is for highway cruising and to meet CAFE standards.

Well, IS-F is 8sp... but it's paddle shift

It's about damn time someone made a 7 speed manual. :clap: Now 3-pedal cars are only 2 speeds behind automatics :mad0260:

With every extra gear, it means you can have a greater ratio spread. This means you can have amazingly short lower gears for maximum acceleration and crazy tall top gears for great efficiency during highway cruising. It also means that people will have to come to grips that traditional manual transmissions aren't sequential, and you don't have to use every gear sequentially. With a 7-speed, I'd expect to use the ratios something like 1-3-5-7 on a normal basis, or 1-2-4-7. I'm sure I'd try 1-7 just for fun. Isn't that what manuals are all about these days; fun?

i can see it now, shifting up to 4th gear to go 30 mph to a stop light... haha i dont know

I do that on a daily basis... Did it with the 5-speed when/where-ever possible as well. :iono:

amazingly short gears dont equate to maximum acceleration. what it does mean is that you spend more time shifting than accelerating. this is why the wrx accelerates faster to 60 than an sti. im not saying that the wrx is faster but i am saying that extra gears dont mean more performance. also tall top gears dont mean great mileage if they remove the engine from its range of desirable effeciency

7th gear has to be a "super-cruising" gear, like for the autobahn. it also probably has a lock/detent feature like reverse.

That's all depends on gear ratio & final they put it. If they want, they can make that 7th gear use for 60mph... which I highly doubt, but just saying

of course anything is possible, but realistically its done for fuel economy ONLY. also it would make no sense to force the driver to change gears so often.

have you ever driven an H pattern stick with more than 5 gears? and i mean hard in the corners with a lot of downshifting and up shifting between 3-4-5?

LOL I know what you mean. Sometimes, I miss-shift when I track w my friend's S2k... or maybe I'm just not used to his S2k? IDK :)

I think those issues would be more pronounced in a FR car, especially with less than ideal soft mounts. Maybe the same holds true for the Porsche, but it seems like it'd be less of an issue. I haven't driven a Porsche, or any other RR car for that matter, so I'm not sure.

Yeah I wud misshift too before i got used to it. Anything more than seven and i dont see how u wud avoid misshifts. Oh and theres no point in having a taller extra overdrive gear so having more gears means closer spaced 2-5 with overdrive 6 and 7

why would those issues be more pronounced in a fr? i feel like having the shifter actually attatched to the transmission would reduce some of the issues a vague linkage would cause

http://images.thecarconnection.com/l...00361329_l.jpg

Pass, lol

If the entire transmission unit twisted bad enough under load where you'd miss the shift, not just a vague linkage.

anyone else notice the line to R is curved, but the line to 7 isnt? does this mean no 7th gear lockout of any sort? hmmm...

I would guess in order to use R gear you need to first release to neutral and then press down to the R gear. That may also be the reason where there is a little gap in the line.

Many manual cars from VW is done like this. Not sure if BMW or mb are like this as well but I guess that is a german car thing.

Misinformation much? If you check automatic gearing you can see that they not only reduce the RPM for cruising beyond a manual but they put the engine outside of it's torque curve. EG the tiny engined Honda Fit cruises at 60mph @ 2800RPMs with 5spdStandard vs 2200RPMs with the 5spdAuto. Or maybe a better example is the RX-8's Renesis. 3000RPM with 6spdStandard vs 2000RPM with 6spdAuto.

The Mustang, Camaro, Corvette, and Viper have had double overdrives in 6spds for awhile now.

If you want, there is probably a dozen articles I can find on the subject.
And pretty much all sports/y/ish cars with standard could use a taller set of cruising gears.

Offering more gears is the easiest way to offer short enough gears for acceleration yet tall enough for good MPG. You are not required to use all of them all the time.

well i used to drive an s2000 so i know about having double overdrives. and yes, during highway cruising it was revving around 4k so it could've used a taller gear. i've heard the same about the miata 6 speed. but it honestly would be a lot easier to just make the 6th gear taller as opposed to adding a whole 'nother overdrive gear. i just don't see the point of having 3 overdrives, why would you need an in between overdrive gear between 5 and 7? i guess that's what porsche is doing but i really can't think of a lot of times that would come in handy.

I don't quite understand what you are saying. You say you understand but you're discussing two cars that don't have double overdrives :iono: but instead had very short 6th gears?

Too much of a drop is bad if they're shifting fast, bad for syncros. Some of the double over drives are basically a regular OD and taller OD with a really short axle ratio. I triple OD I could see being a bit wasteful but it would really depend on the axle gears.

um, what? an overdrive gear is any gear with a ratio of less than 1:1. both 5th and 6th gear in the s2000 are below 1:1. i don't know the miata 6 speed gear ratios off the top of my head but i'm positive it has double overdrives as well.

what i'm saying is, the s2000 had double overdrive but the final drive was a little short, so i can understand wanting an even taller gear. but why not just make the 6th gear taller instead of adding a 7th?

yes too much of a drop is bad when shifting fast, but why would you be shifting fast or shifting near redline in a cruise gear? the only time you'll notice the difference is if you're going 140+mph.

Yeah, the S2000 isn't a good example of a Double Overdrive, it's a very close ratio box and 5th is barely more than 1:1 ratio. Most domestics use a 1:1 gear and they use two gears for OD and that 6th gear can be from .50-.68 or so.

well i like the gear spacing on the s2000 so for a 7 speed, it would make more sense to me if 5th was 1:1 or at least close to 1:1 with an overdrive 6th and 7th, which is why i made the initial comment. but i guess that's not what porsche is doing.

I didn't mean to make that sound like a negative X).

ok well you quoted me and said "misinformation much" so you made it sound like i didn't know what i was talking about. i feel vindicated much!!!